Midnight Snacks

**Wingfoot** · September 26th, 2009, 06:37 PM

Midnight snacks pack on the pounds

Everyone knows that midnight snacking is hardly the path to fitness. But there's new research that shows that late night snacking could be packing more pounds on you than you thought.

The Northwestern University study examined groups of mice and found that the mice that fed when they should've been sleeping actually gained twice the amount of weight as the mice that ate during normally active periods. This was the first study to examine the link between mealtime and weight gain.

The study's authors put this down to circadian rhythms, and claim that eating at the wrong time disrupts the body's natural metabolism.

I'm wouldn't say that this is news of the stop-the-presses variety. It's been known for years that you're less apt to burn calories that are consumed during rest hours. But if you eat a big breakfast, those calories are burned off by evening.

The big conclusion of this research? Avoid snacking after dinner if you want to avoid weight gain.

Always fattening your brain by feeding you the truth,

William Campbell Douglass II, M.D.

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